First responders at the World Trade Center and Pentagon dove into a chaotic maelstrom without hesitation, and their selfless service, honed by years of training, saved the lives of many people. After the injured were triaged, the fire was extinguished, and the scenes were controlled, the world waited for a measured response and, with fear and trepidation, a possible follow-up attack on another site somewhere in the United States.

The most destructive terrorist attack ever to occur on American soil illustrated the need for trained homeland security professionals. Other acts of terrorism in the past decade have emphasized this point. America needs not only to train existing homeland security personnel, but also to educate the next generation of people charged with protecting the United States from terrorist threats.

The Learning Curve

After 11 September, government agencies began determining how to incorporate homeland security into existing organizational structures while others began building organizations from the bottom up. Organizational engineers will undoubtedly study this dynamic process in years to come. Many vitally important positions designed to protect citizens, infrastructure, and key resources were filled by people based on time and grade within existing organizations. Unfortunately, some of these new recruits began with little or no antiterrorism or homeland security experience.

Bank robbery experts, physical security professionals, and other government employees essentially woke up on 12 September as newly minted homeland security professionals. Still other young, bright, energetic recent graduates were thrust into midlevel homeland security positions without any real experience outside the classroom. Some military veterans had antiterrorism backgrounds, but many either met territory barriers or found typical bureaucratic systems incomprehensible.

Five years later, the nation has a variety of homeland security professionals diligently working to protect the freedoms of the country. We must be ready for future attacks, and we have a duty to educate future homeland security professionals. Educating them now ensures a continuum of dedicated professionals to meet and defeat tomorrow’s threats.

The preparation of future homeland security professionals must include formal education, experiential learning, training opportunities, and mentoring:

• Formal education
• Experiential learning (internships, fellowships, etc.)
• Training
• Mentoring
• Military

Formal Education

Homeland security is a hot topic in American society, and more people are earning degrees that focus on protecting the nation. Positions in homeland security range from analytical research and linguistics to first response—firefighters, police, public health professionals, etc.—who are more involved with the hands-on components of homeland security. Homeland security does not lend itself to a single program. Degree programs tend to fall into four broad categories: emergency and disaster management, intelligence analysis and operations, criminal justice and security, and transportation and logistics.

Formal education provides a good academic background to many issues that homeland security officials have to address and contributes to building a better base in the field. International affairs and political science are two of the more traditional majors where the political, legal, psychological, and social aspects of terrorism take the forefront in the classroom. Graduates with these degrees who have foreign language abilities make better candidates for homeland security analysis and research. Criminal justice, public health, and agro-terrorism are some of the more hands-on degrees for people in homeland security. These types of programs prepare students for entry-level positions in law enforcement, protective services, and security on the local, state, and federal levels.

Universities can help fill a significant skills deficit by enhancing their curricula with more homeland security–oriented classes and providing students with learning and technological skills. The Department of Homeland Security relies on universities to research and develop technologies such as geographical information systems, tools to enhance cyber-security, and vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics that could help people survive a terrorist attack.

Finance, business, and management career-minded students should also consider homeland security. Most seasoned homeland security and counterterrorism professionals realize that stopping the illegal flow of money into the terrorist network, as well as prevention, response planning, and resource management, is at least as important as the work of first responders.

It’s also worth noting that some undergraduate and graduate programs now offer degrees in homeland security, while other institutions offer minors in criminal justice, public policy, and related areas.

Experiential Learning

Experiential learning through internships and fellowships provides a potential homeland security professional with experience and knowledge of the field and the opportunity to access a vast wealth of knowledge by building a network of qualified professionals.

Fellows and interns in the homeland security field experience both the focused aspect of an agency’s homeland security work and the security umbrella that keeps the country safe. For example, a public-sector intern working in Congress would experience how bills affecting the security of the country are made. The intern would see the beginning of the homeland security process and witness how Congress continues to check up on its progress. After any internship, a potential homeland security employee is better prepared to meet the demands of a full-time position.

Beyond an understanding of the homeland security field, an intern or fellow gains knowledge about specific areas of homeland security. An intern in the private sector—at a think tank, for example—would work with area-specific experts who are at the tops of their fields. The association with experts and the issue-area work would give the intern knowledge and experience. Delving deeply into one issue is valuable because it gives the intern an area of expertise. This type of area specificity is also how most of the homeland security field conducts its work.

Perhaps the most beneficial asset an intern gains is a network. While working alongside homeland security professionals in a variety of fields, an intern can develop lasting relationships that better both the interns and their contacts. This network can give an intern access to a multitude of jobs and a web of expertise to be called on in a future job. The intern’s contacts are able to increase their own networks and gain access to a pool of eager-to-learn, dedicated future employees.

Fellows and interns must be offered a broad range of experiences at all levels. An intern or fellow in a planning agency must know what it is like to be a street cop and firefighter as well as an intelligence fusion center analyst and public health surveillance officer.

Fellows and interns can earn college academic credit and financial stipends while learning on the job. These students are willing to learn and often have a lot to give. They are hungry to soak up knowledge and can provide valuable services on specific projects. It is often the inexperienced eye that notices shortfalls or gaps.

Finally, experiential learning opportunities will teach how theory becomes real, on-the-ground practice. Students will learn that homeland security is a profession comprising a wide variety of agencies and careers and learn that it takes them all to defeat the terrorist network. Interns also will learn that doing the right thing as a homeland security professional does not necessarily reflect a script of the television show 24.

Training

Training opportunities via workshops, classes, on-the-job training, and institutionalized courses provide specialized knowledge to current and future homeland security professionals.

Training imparts specific and applicable information. Courses may cover job-specific or threat-specific topics and are ongoing with a variety of topics to meet changing threats. For example, course topics may be “Understanding Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning,” “Tactical Response to Suicide Bombers,” or “Understanding Militant Islam.” Ten years ago a course on militant Islam would not have been as applicable as it is today. A course on heating, ventilation and air conditioning for security purposes is more fitting today due to increased accessibility to information and materials used to create biological and chemical agents.

Course participants may earn official certifications, which increase employability and enhance their ability to mentor future homeland security professionals.

Training is often led by experts in the field. Homeland security professionals learn from people who truly know and have firsthand experiences. The ability to learn from and interact with such educators is a unique opportunity to obtain more detailed and candid information from the instructors’ personal experiences.

Train-the-trainer courses certify attendees to teach others in homeland security as well as in law enforcement and private-sector security. In this way, training benefits the homeland security professionals by ensuring that they are well acquainted with the material before instructing others. Train-the-trainer courses also benefit the field as a whole by expanding the opportunity to attend certain courses.

Three types of training must be incorporated to maximize learning opportunities: (1) institutionalized, (2) threat- or risk-based, and (3) on the job. Institutionalized training must cover the subjects needed by the critical mass of homeland security professionals. Many of these subjects are for entry-level first responders or simply cover a new process, topic, or threat. Examples are “Weapons of Mass Destruction Basic Awareness,” “Incident Management System,” and “Emergency Planning.” Threat- or risk-based training is often based on changing events or job-specific functions. Imagine five years ago the need to offer training in the civilian sector on piloting an unmanned aerial vehicle or how to expel harmful chemicals from a building using the existing heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system. On-the-job training continues to be the kind that most new professionals need. This need reflects the value of experiential learning and is most common within agencies that emphasize in-service training, mentoring, and counseling.

Mentoring

Regardless of the level where a person begins working in homeland security, a mentor will often be the difference between success and failure. Police officers, firefighters, and military personnel always have known the value of such relationships. New hires or career-transitioning staff will be unfamiliar with the organization, terminology, administrative details, and priorities of the position; mentors can help clarify these issues. Equally important, a mentor will counsel new personnel, challenge them, and ensure that they are on the road to success. Mentors are team builders who take pride in educating and training subordinates. A real mentor is someone who expects the learner to be able to perform the mentor’s functions in the future. Finally, mentors must be selfless and always willing to listen.

Military

We must not forget the absolute value of the training and real-life experiences of the military. Although the military is not for everyone, everyone who has been in the military has at least a basic knowledge of antiterrorism and force protection. Additionally, every veteran knows about teamwork, hardship, and self-defense. In the bigger scheme of things, the military is often the leading edge of what becomes civilian practice, often without the civilian sector’s even knowing it.

A young person who truly wants to defend the nation and take the fight to the terrorists should join the military. Not since the final days of door-to-door fighting in World War II have our young men fought in such an urban and convoluted environment. These abilities are now needed more than ever by counterterrorism professionals, special operations police officers, and bomb technicians.

An entire article could be written about the military correlations with tomorrow’s homeland security professional needs. One must truly understand the vast differences in the strategic, operation, and tactical level and the policy and bureaucratic level.

Conclusion

Terrorism is nothing new. Nonetheless, global instability, renewed threats, and war have perhaps lent a new sense of immediacy to the terrorist threat in America. In the past two decades, new methods and new networks have made evident the need for highly trained homeland security professionals. Training and education to prevent terrorism have spawned cottage industries and sparked revised curricula in higher education. This counterrevolution may be one of the most potent weapons in the fight against terrorism—now, as we train current homeland security personnel, and in the future as we educate the next generation.